It's Sttttiiiiiiinnnng!!!!
Intro w/ K from Big Egg Joshi Podcast (0-36)
AJPW RWTL, NOAH Final Chron, seaD (0-26)
TJPW WOMM Dec 12 (26-36)
Ocean War (36-1:36)
AEW Dynamite w/ Mom Winter is Coming, Dec 9 (36-1:19)
DDT D-ou D2-6 (1:19-1:36)
Joshi War (1:36-1:54)
Ice Ribbon 1086 Yokohama (1:36-1:47)
Stardom Dec 1-15 Toyama (1:47-1:54)
Puroresu War (1:54-2:19)
Dragon Gate Origin, KBS Hall, Kyoto (1:54-2:08)
NJPW BOSJ, WTTL finals, J-cup (2:08-2:19)
AAA Triplemania 2020 (2:19-2:29)
Retro Wrestling: (2:29-4:31)
AJW Classics Eps 34 Ota Ward Gymnasium 7/19/1989 (2:29-3:11)
NJPW through the 90s [AJPW 'gaps' 1990-93] March-Apr 4, 94 (3:11-3:57)
WCW Nitro Jan 25, 1999 (3:57-4:31)
Wrestler Rankings close out
Top 20 Wrestlers of 2020 Updated Table as of eps 71
With only 1 more episode/2 weeks left in 2020, the two wrestlers of the year is locked up. Moxley is out in front clinching it for the men while unless a house show or Ps party blow away match happens for Maya Yukihi, Mayu Iwatani has locked it up for the women.
Ice Ribbon's Ribbon Mania and DDT's D-ou final coming on Dec 31, unfortunately those shows will be counted for 2021 as was done this year.
As for the last episode coming in 2020, Dragon Gate has their massive Final Gate show headlined by Ben-K challenging Skywalker. It's been a crazy year for DG with Naruki Doi's reign (while strong) was during covid, Eita being a transitional champion, and the new one being on excursion all year. Plus, the new talent being pushed hard in the second half, this has lead to no one person being the massive standout on the year despite strong cards and strong booking. On the flip side, each men's promotion champion has had a less than stellar year comparatively. DDT's Endo, Moxley, and Omega being the exception while NOAH's Go Shiozaki finished exceptionally strong. Before that, it was things like empty arena, lackluster booking, and weird meme-style matches that held him back (in my eyes). Then there's Naito with the Evil story in NJPW, constant Gedo-style interference heel repeat booking that held him back, Okada's lackluster money-clip finisher story, Kento Miyahara existing in AJPW's very strange booking year involving Ashino, Tajiri, a mess, and Europe basically shut down all year, the top promotions have been hit hard this year trying to adjust to booking at the top.
However, a shining light is always found from AEW pushing young talent in their first tv year with the likes of Darby Allin, Guevara, and the Best Friends (Cassidy, Trent, Chuckie T) being a highlight of tv for them. In DDT, they had Masato Tanaka hold the fort in the first months of the year while Endo, Takashita, and especially the rise of Higuchi and Ueno crushed it at the top of their card giving DDT a strong edge over other promotions in 2020. Various indies and freelance talents like BJW's Sato/Sekimoto and the Strong Hearts gave such a strong tag focus in 2020 for great tag matches and programs. Lastly, despite NJPW having a baffling year, strong mid to upper card talent still provided us with some damn good wrestling: Ishii's G1, Shingo's Openweight title, Hiromu's Jr title, and the ole' vets Minoru Suzuki and Nagata came through huge in 2020.
The women had a much more volatile year. Ice Ribbon and AEW maintained a very important presence being the only ones that continued to run during covid when the shutdown happened indeed contributing to the point total on the year. Yes, wwe ran too but across their shows, a mixture of bad booking and BS-finishes and stop-start pushes never got anyone out of the gate for "blow away" matches or programs with the best they had to offer was a 20 day blow off of Banks v Bayley after tagging and having constant nonsense unsatisfying matches. Impact, while constantly pegged having the "best women" along with WWE's NXT, funny how nobody can truly point to a great program or matches in 2020, or at the very least can only point to 1-offs which hurts sinking your teeth truly into the content provided.
What did provide excellent womens wrestling was Stardom's fantastic booking elevating talent in a year where the promotion suffered great losses both physically (presence wise) and emotionally. Giulia started shaky and proved to rise to the occasion. Not all her matches hit, but doesn't change how much she improved both in ring and her star presence. Utami rose further winning the 5 star and the red belt taking her place that was pegged since her debut. Also, the likes of Tam providing excellent story telling, and rookies SayTani and Maika improving fast made for a fun year. The major hitters all came through in 2020: Mayu Iwatani holding the red belt all year, Maya Yukihi infinity champion for 8 months of 2020, Tsukushi, Arisa Nakajima, Yoshiko, Fujimoto, and Yuka all did business as usual. It's the newcomers that surprised for the women this year. Suzu Suzuki only 17 years old wins the infinity title, Shida and Baker being the sole highlights in AEW's building women's division with Shida the wrestling, Baker the personality, and finally indie talent Thuder Rosa breaking through to higher highs all created fun and interesting buzz where it was needed.
2020 certainly had its ups and down, but in a year of tough and dire times, there was some damn fun and good wrestling out. Please sign up for the Red Leaf Retrocast patreon launching in Jan 2021 for more content, full rankings discussion, and our top matches, wrestlers, and top tag matches of the year in 2020.
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